


Checkmate

by Sam_Knight



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Cat and Mouse, F/M, Highblood Rages, Mind Control, Mind Games, Mind Manipulation, Nook, Sex, somewhat slow burn, tentabuldge
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-12
Updated: 2017-12-13
Packaged: 2019-02-14 00:28:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,477
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12995844
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sam_Knight/pseuds/Sam_Knight
Summary: Shaylan Arniat is many things. A loyal friend, a quick thinker, a peace keeper with a silver tongue, but when the Highblood , Vander Enkara, takes notice of her unnatural way of keeping the peace in his club, Shalyn has to start putting up walls to keep more than just one secret.





	1. This Is Where The Party Starts

   Shalyn Arniat was going to kill her moirail if it was the last thing she ever did. She wanted nothing more to spend a quiet evening in her apartment, but no. Anliez, her party obsessed rainbow drinker moirail, wasn’t having it. The jade blood had dragged her out of the quiet comfort of her hive by her ear and into a club downtown.    
   Anliez had brought her a “more appropriate” clubbing outfit. Apparently, her usual long-sleeved sweater and knee-length skirt wasn’t going to cut it this time. The young female troll studied herself in the full-length mirror in the bathroom, and she didn’t like what stared back at her. A short black dress that would look more like a shirt if 75% of the back wasn’t missing and heeled boots that reached just below the knee. Shalyn pulled on the hem of the dress hoping to cover more of her almost visible ass when Anliez walked back into the restroom.

  
   “Look at you!” She wrapped her arms around Shalyn’s shoulders and nuzzled up to her, “You look good enough to eat!” As if on cue her fangs popped out. Shalyn giggled and swatted her away.

   “Haha,” she mocked wryly, “Very funny. Remind me, again, why you dragged me out here?” 

  “Because” She scoffed leaning towards the mirror and started to reapply her blood color lipstick. “You can’t hide away in your hive like some hermit!” The jadeblood smacked her lips together to smooth down the newly applied color. “Honestly, Sha. How do you expect to fill your quadrants if you don’t mingle with others?”  
   

   Shalyn rolled her eyes, “Not this again. You know I’m perfectly happy watching old movies and scrolling through Bubblr all night.” It felt like Anliez was trying to set her up with someone every week now. It was getting to the point that she didn’t even want to answer her Trollian in fear that it was her.

   “I’m not kidding Sha-sha,” Anliez spun around, her long hair twirling with her, “I love you, but you could at least try to find someone you can be red for.” She grabbed her unadventurous friend and started to drag her out of the bathroom and into the clamorous club that waited just outside the door, “Honestly, I’d even be okay if you found a kismesis at this point!”  
   Shalyn grimaced as a wall of noise slammed into her. The music alone was going to give her a headache. Not to mention the lights flashing about made it hard to see where Anliez was dragging her. 

_**SMACK!**_  
 

   Before Shalyn could stop, she collided with a troll who was at least a head taller than her. His glass, drink, and all splattered on the floor going everywhere.  
  


* * *

  
  
Poison Miracles had opened a little over a sweep ago, and life couldn’t be motherfuckin’ sweeter. Vander Enkara downed what was left in his rock glass, before scoping out the crowd below him. He was on the second level balcony where the more private guests usually resided. The highblood wanted company, but he hadn’t decided what kind yet. A long-horned male with neatly styled hair caught his eye caught Vander’s attention. However, just as Vander started to focus his chuckle-voodoos on the young man his concentration was broken by the sound of shattering glass and yelling.

   “This is my moirail’s first time going to a club, and you’re ruining it!” A pencil-thin troll with short pointed horns had jammed her finger into the much larger troll’s chest. Her supposed moirail voiced her concerns claiming it was okay, but she didn’t listen

   “Why don’t you watch where you’re going!” He snapped back. Vander could see the signs. This blue blood was about to react violently. Vander licked his lips in anticipation. He loved when fights broke out. It usually meant he’d invite the victor to drink from his private selection. Vander refilled his drink and watched as the blue blood’s thoughts created the energy that would lead to the much larger troll to begin. His opponent looked equally as willing to fight, but then something happened that both stunned and intrigued everyone involved. 

   The friend stepped in. Placing a hand on both trolls, suddenly the negative energy was gone. Both trolls, who were previously so ready to fight, relaxed as if a wave of sedative washed over both of them.   
Vander tilted his head to the side to take in the troll who just dismantled the fight. Lighting bolt shaped horns, short black hair, and an even shorter dress. He narrowed his eyes. Most trolls wore some kind of article of clothing to indicate their blood type, but this lil’mama did nothing of the sort. He watched as she apologized and offered him another drink she had plopped off the nearby bar.   
Granted, Vander was upset he wasn’t going to see anyone get beaten to a sorry pulp, but at least now he found someone who could possibly entertain him. He downed his drink again and started to focus in on this girl. 

_**Wall** _

   Vander paused. He wasn’t expecting that. Not many trolls had a mental tolerance for his mind control. The highblood huffed. Maybe he just needed to concentrate harder. Vander set his glass down and focused on the girl again. A hazy purple set over his vision as he tried harder. She took a step and placed a hand on her forehead as if she had a migraine, but still, Vander made no progress. He still hit a wall.   
Maybe he had had too much to drink. He looked at his glass of whiskey. It had happened before, but he had consumed half of a liquor store when it occurred. Vander narrowed his eyes at a teal blood at the bar. Without any trouble, he was able to slip into her mind. According to her thoughts, she was having trouble building up the nerve to go dance with a blueblood on the dance floor. Vander didn’t see the harm in loaning her the courage to go do such a thing.  
 

  The highblood averted his attention back to the troll who was blocking out his mind control. She was sitting at the bar now. Her friend was missing. He tilted his head to the side and studied her. This would be a good time to investigate


	2. Unwanted Company

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Poor Shalyn wanted nothing more than to go home, but that wasn't going to happen anytime soon. Not if Vander had anything to do about it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Id love to thank my wonderful Moirail for editing this chapter for me. She is a wonderful human being who puts up with my horrible typing errors. Once she gets an archive account I will be making her co creator

   The bartender slid Shalyn a drink. He had called it a amaretto sour. It tasted wonderful, and she sipped on it hoping it would help her headache would subside. Shortly after she had calmed Anliez and the blue-blood down her head had started to pound. The pain had dwindled now, but an underlining soreness left her slightly annoyed and she pondered going home.

   This kind of thing wasn’t uncommon when she had to use her powers. It was called Transference, and it usually took a lot out of her when she had to diffuse something like that. (A blue blood with that much zeal took more than usual.) When a troll started to act negatively, all Shalyn had to do was touch them and she could influence how they felt. She did this by taking their emotions as her own. To stop the impending fight from earlier she had given the blue blood her flusteredness and given Anliez her more submissive apologetic side. Unfortunately, she had to take their annoyance and spitefulness in order to make room for these new emotions.

   “I’m surprised a fine  lil’mama like yourself is sittin’ her all by her lonesome.”

   Shalyn’s train of thought crashed into a fiery wreck and her annoyance grew into a red-hot irritating burn. She whipped around to tell whoever called her a  _ lil’mama  _ that she was not interested, but her breath caught in her throat when her eyes met his.

   Vander’s black hair was pulled back into a loose bun, and he sported a orchid colored suit jacket with a black button up underneath. Gold jewelry accented his outfit in the form of rings on his fingers and piercings in his ear, but only a single pendant rested on his clothes. A Caprist symbol.

_    Oh. My...  _ Shalyn tried to keep her gaping at a minimum and took in a breath. This man was royalty from not only his blood color but his sign too, and this was the last person she wanted attention from.

  “Do you talk?” He asked with a smirk curled on his lips. Her reaction to him had been priceless. Even though she didn’t wear a color, he could tell she was probably in the lower half of the spectrum.

   “Of course I can talk,” she quipped back, “I just wasn’t expecting anyone to talk to me.” She crossed her arms attempting to form some sort of dominance over him. Since she didn’t wear her color, maybe she could trick him into thinking she was higher than him on the spectrum.

   His smirk lightened into a smile and he leaned on the bar counter beside her, “Why come to a club if you don’t want to motherfuckin’ talk to people?” Vander looked at the bartender and motioned for him to refill their drinks.

   “Maybe I came for the free drinks I am getting?” she replied curtly and sipped at her freshly poured drink.

   Vander chuckled, “Touché,” he replied, defeated before tasting the whiskey that was placed in front of him. “Vander Enkara,” the highblood extended his hand.

   “Shalyn Arniat,” she noted how many rings littered his fingers as she shook hands with him. His skin almost felt like ice compared to what she was used to. It almost felt nice. Almost. Vander was having similar thoughts. He liked how the warmth lingered even though he had pulled away.

   “Surely a motherfuckin’ miracle like yourself isn’t here alone” His words came out dark and smooth, and Shalyn had to bite back a smile.

   “No, I’m uh...” words became harder to form the longer he stared at her, “I’m here with my moirail. She’s somewhere around here.” Shalyn started to look around nervously for Anliez. Finally, she caught the shimmering of her moirail’s glowing skin on the dance floor, but unfortunately, she was tongue deep into the blue blood she had tried fighting earlier. A sigh of exasperation escaped her lips. “Of course,” she mumbled and took a long drink of her cocktail.

   Vander looked in the same direction his new acquaintance was and chuckled, “It looks like she’s a little busy.”

   Shalyn rolled her eyes gritting her teeth slightly, “She drags me out here in hopes that I’ll hit it off with someone and then ditches me as soon as she can.” Embarrassment pricked at her cheeks as she realized the man beside her was more than likely trying to hit it off with her. A wave of pain washed over her head and she winced.

   Vander had watched her closely. He had tried to enter her head again. It didn’t work, but she did react to it. A good sign, “Are you okay?”

Shalyn grimaced slightly, “Not really.” She went to take another sip of her drink only to find that it was empty and sighed, “I’m not a party person and my head is pounding.”

   A devilish idea popped into the highblood’s head. He’d invite her back to his private quaters away from all the noise, pump her full of alcohol, and than see if he could get her to talk. If she didn’t talk than maybe she’d be intoxicated enough to control. But before Vander could open his mouth, the two were rudely interrupted by Shalyn’s moirail.

   “Sha!” Her skin seemed to glow in the dark as she wrapped her arms around Shalyn and looked over her friend’s new company, “Are you having a good time?” But Anliez didn’t give her enough time to respond before she moved on to her next question. “Who is this you are drinking with?” She sounded like she had been doing some drinking herself.

   “Oh uh…” Shalyn’s mouth opened but she paused, not sure which question to answer first, “This is Vander-”

   Anliez dramatic gasp cut her off, “Vander Enkara!” Yep, definitely tipsy.

   Vander was used to such reactions. It came with the territory of being a highblood. He nodded a greeting at her before downing the rest of his drink.

   Already a little shocked that Anliez had finished her sentence, she asked, “You’ve already met?” She looked nervously at her moirail, half hoping this was uncharted territory.

   “Oh no! I’ve never had the pleasure,” The jade blood wouldn’t take her eyes off him. This only furthered Shalyn’s confusion.

   “Then how did you-”

   “Sha,” Anliez led sympathetically, leaning towards her friend, “He owns the club. How did you not know that?” She said this as if it was common knowledge.

   “This is my first time here” Shalyn replied annoyed that her friend was buzzed and obviously having a good time, “How was I supposed to know that?”

   Vander smiled and decided to interrupt the two’s mindless chatter, “Well if that’s the case I would love to give a grand tour of the place to a fine miracle like yourself.” The two ladies stopped talking and looked at him before back at each other.

   “You mean there’s more than just this area?” Shalyn inquired, trying to keep her cool and not accepting right away.

   Vander couldn’t help but laugh at the slightly stunned look on her face. He gestured to the second-floor balcony, “Just up there is my private lounge. I usually use it as a VIP lounge on the weekends for all my personal motherfuckers, but it is just me tonight.”

   Shalyn opened her mouth to tell him she’d like nothing more than to go home, but Anliez cut in, “She’d absolutely love to!” This caused Shalyn to glare at her. This was the exact opposite of what she wanted, but now she had been volunteered.

   Vander only watched with a playful smile. He had made Anliez say that after all. There was no better way to get an answer than to have someone else secure it for you. She looked at him and he offered his hand to her. With a sigh of defeat, Shalyn took his hand.

   “I guess I really don’t have a choice, now do I?” Indenation coated her words as she continued to glare at her friend. Shalyn got to her feet and looked up at him. He stood almost six inches taller than her and when he smiled his teeth looked much sharper. A chill crept down her spine. Being alone with him definitely felt like a bad idea.

   Vander started to pull her towards a set of stairs that was plastered to the far wall. Shalyn peered behind her long enough for her moirail to wave and wink at her before merging back into the crowd. She was going to kill her rainbow drinking ass for this.

.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thanks for reading! I hate writing chapter one on any story, but look! we both made it through :) I'm going to try to update once a week but no promises. I hope you have a wonderful day and don't forget to leave a kudos!


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